Favorite applets

[openbsd-flipp]

Just about everyone that uses Linux or BSD has come across and applet or two that they keep running on their desktops. I want to know what the DT crowd uses. If nothing else it will give me some more ideas about using up some more of my task bar space.

[openbsd-flipp]

Some of the ones I use on a regular basis are.
Inbox Monitor
System monitor
kwifi manager
battery charge monitor
mini-commander (command line )
kwikdisk
newsticker

[dang]

i dont use any applet as i rarely boot up into a desktop. command line is usually where i'm at.

[spankers]

dang! you are too cool!! do you use lynx as a browser?? ;)

LOL! Seriously though, I never had the privilege of running linux on a desktop until recently, and it's such a slow machine i keep it in run level 3 unless i need to browse web for something. Then I use Firefox!! Not lynx. I only lynx if i abosolutely must. I usually just use wget to get something.

[spankers]

I'm using Xfce4 and the panel uses a more generic framework for applets than GNOME. Everything in the panel is a plug-in... Taskbar, Window List, Pager, Application Menu... they're all built as panel plug-ins.

The ones of note that I am using are (as shown from left to right on attached jpeg):
1. xfce4-fsguard. The yellow and green icons show free space left on partitions (/ and /home respectively) on mouseover and will generate alarms at user defined points.

2. xfce4-genmon. This little plug-in is the best. It calls a script you write and displays the STDOUT on the panel in a user selected font. My script shows CPU freq, CPU temp, hard drive temp, and wireless bitrate. I like having the bitrate displayed as opposed to signal strength. Here's my crap Q&D shell script:
#!/bin/bash
CPUSPEED=`cat /proc/cpuinfo | grep "MHz" | cut -d ":" -f 2 | cut -d "." -f 1`
BITRATE=`/sbin/iwconfig eth1 | grep "Bit Rate" | cut -d ":" -f 2 | cut -d " " -f 1`
CPUTEMP=`acpi -ABt | cut -d " " -f 9 | cut -d "." -f 1`
DISKTEMP=`hddtemp -n /dev/hda`
echo $CPUSPEED/$CPUTEMP/$DISKTEMP
if [ $BITRATE ]; then echo "$BITRATE Mbit/s"
else echo "00 Mbit/s"
fi
3. xfce4-netload. Network bar indicators for eth0 and eth1 (100Base-T and 802.11g)

4. xfce4-systemload. Shows CPU load, memory used, and swap used.

5. Notification area. This is the same as the GNOME notification area. Stardict and the xfce4-calendar reside here.

6. Volume control. Stock xfce4 plugin.

7. xfce4-clipman. Clipboard manager. Allows you to select current clipboard object from a history of clipboard items.

8. Clock.

[openbsd-flipp]

Spankers those are some good apps there. Which distro are you running currently?

[spankers]

Debian Unstable with bits from Experimental (sylpheed-claws-gtk2 with dillo & PGP plugins... great email client), Xorg 6.8.2 compiled from tarball, Xfce4 from cvs, and kernel 2.6.11-rc4 (rc4 has support for changing LCD brightness in console with keyboard brightness keys).

I'd like to go with Gentoo but my laptop runs on the hot side and I'm afraid it would melt (hence the hostname 'chernobyl') compiling everything from source.

I'd like to mess with BSD a bit but have become comfortable with Linux and don't have the spare hardware to build a dedicated box... perhaps sometime in the future.

[spankers]

LOL! Seriously though, I never had the privilege of running linux on a desktop until recently, and it's such a slow machine i keep it in run level 3 unless i need to browse web for something. Then I use Firefox!! Not lynx. I only lynx if i abosolutely must. I usually just use wget to get something.

Oh, lynx isn't all that bad. I am quite impressed with the features given it is console only. I wouldn't want to use it as my primary browser, though.

[dang]

spankers: oops. i made a booboo and edited your post instead of replying. That was weird. sorry about that.

[spankers]

There ya go using your godlike admin privileges to beat down the proletariat. For shame! ;) ... No worries.

[llbbl]

i was confused. dang was editing your post, but he was quoting himself. and the quote wasn't even something that was said yet...

[spankers]

Billy Pilgrim has come unstuck in time.

Billy has gone to sleep a senile widower and awakened on his wedding day. He has walked through a door in 1955 and come out another one in 1941. He has gone back through that door to find himself in 1963. He has seen his birth and death many times, he says, and pays random visits to all the events in between.

He says.

Billy is spastic in time, has no control over where he is going next, and the trips aren't necessarily fun. He is in a constant state of stage fright, he says, because he never knows what part of his life he is going to have to act in next.

-- Kurt Vonnegut, Slaughterhouse Five


'nuff said.

By the way... if you haven't read Vonnegut, go get some.

[openbsd-flipp]

Gentoo is nice once you get the hang of it. I redid the installation twice before it finally took but now I am happy with the setup. I am in the middle of teaching a buddy of mine unix through FreeBSD. After that I am going to teach him gentoo, then maybe some lighter distro and let him choose what he wants to use.